N. Lehigh Boys, Freedom Girls On Move Scholastic Basketball

March 09, 1985|by PETE WALDRON, The Morning Call.

The perfect description for Northern Lehigh's 67-49 win over Nazareth last night was HOT.

Before an overflowing crowd at Bethlehem Catholic, the Bulldogs sweated to the District 11 boys AAA consolation win in temperatures comparable to a muggy August weekend. However, the mercury was rising even before the Northern Lehigh victory. Earlier, Freedom downed Nazareth 49-38 in a bruising battle to win the girls AAAA district consolation game.

Both teams now advance to interdistrict play beginning next week. Northern Lehigh will go against District 3 champion York Catholic while the Freedom girls will play the No. 1 team from District 4.

"These kids can play against anyone," said Northern Lehigh coach Glenn Rissmiller. "Like always anything can happen on any given night. We just have to play one game at a time. Who knows, we could lose the next one. But at least we have a shot at it."

The Bulldogs seemed to have suffered little damage from the devastating 81-72 belting they received from eventual district champion Pottsville in the semifinals on Tuesday. In fact, the loss - the teams' first after 23 straight wins - seem to fire Northern Lehigh up even more.

"We know that we are as good as any team in the state," center Brett Jones said. "We had to play hard to win and in order to move on.

"We knew Nazareth would come to play."

It was obvious Northern Lehigh did. The Centennial League titlist came out strong to register 17 points in the first and 20 in the second and go up 37-25 at the half. In the early going, it appeared Todd Gombos could not miss a shot and he knew it. Gombos found a spot about 20 feet out and drilled in six in-a- row for 12 of his 16 in the first half. Brett Jones registered 10 of his game-high 22 points to aid the attack.

Erik Keglovits quarterbacked the Nazareth attack. Despite the tenacious Bulldog defense, Keglovits pumped in 10 of his 16 in the first half. Craig Klinedinst turned in eight of his 10 in the early going to keep the Blue Eagles in contention.

But Nazareth coach Nick Drosnock knew it was not going to be an easy task.

"Northern Lehigh is an excellent offensive team," he said. "The three other teams that made it into the semifinals got here on its offense. We, however, got here on our defense.

"You have to go with what you got. Well we didn't. It seems we were our own worst enemy."

The girls' contest seemed more like a street fight. Both teams rumbled after loose balls and and spent more time getting up off the floor than charging down the court.

"It was a very physical game," said Greybush, who left the game momentarily with a bruised elbow. "Nazareth has a strong inside team that plays very aggressive."

But Freedom's coach Rich Wesco said his squad didn't sit back and just take it. The Pates took control from the in the second period behind the solid play of Mary Greybush, Terri Dadio and Irma Vasquez. The spurt put Freedom on top at the half 29-13. Greybush led the Patriots with 23-game high points while Vasquez chipped in 11.

Robin Moyer and Mona DiSante moved the offense for Nazareth. Moyer pumped in 11 for the Blue Eagles and DiSante added 10.